Friday, January 18, 2013

TV and the PRC

I went to the gym this morning as I start a program to gain strength in my leg after knee surgery. While working out the TV morning news shows were all about disgraced bike racer Lance Armstrong. I mean real extended coverage now that his interview with Oprah has aired. Even more coverage on the interview than the coverage on the 'suspense' leading up to the broadcast.

This cheater got more ink and airtime for his disgrace than bush, cheney or rumsfeld ever got for getting thousands of Americans and Iraqis killed in a war based on their lies. At least it seems so to me.

What the media should be using their time on now is the NRA's use of the President's daughters as fodder in their pro assault rifle campaign. Where is the national outrage? Is it submerged? Let's hope so.

Now that the Public Regulation Commission has tried to embarrass their head Insurance Department Director John Franchini, it would be the perfect time to for the legislature to just put together another amendment to do away with this posse of Bozos. John is the most honest and competent Insurance regulator ever and when the likes of Karen Montoya who knows absolutely zero about insurance issues can gather votes to suspend him, it is time to put these folks out for good.

2 comments:

The BBC was all over that last night, too. I don't know how the US media is treating this. We have this need to create these heroes, and if it's an Anglo Saxon male hero we don't want to take him down off the pedestal.

The BBC has no such qualms going after Americans. We usurped them in the worldwide superiority business, after all, and after they were done with him it was easy to feel no sympathy for Armstrong at all.

They went into how he tried to destroy anyone who accused him of doping, including the wife of one of his teammates.

They had a UK sports writer in the studio who'd written one of the first books laying out the Armstrong doping scandal. This guy had a 12-year old son who'd died in a bicycle accident. He couldn't keep from breaking down in tears as he told about how Armstrong spread it around that he had a vendetta against cycling because of his son's death.

Armstrong assailed his reputation in other ways, and he broke telling about that, too. His book came out back in '98 and it's still very painful for him to talk about what Armstrong did to him, and it was painful to listen to.

Everyone the BBC talked to who is on the inside of cycling or in the anti doping agency expressed anger or disgust about the interview. They say Armstrong is still lying about the vast doping network he oversaw, and see this interview with Oprah, who knows little about the subject, as a cynical attempt to regain some of his endorsements and get back into cycling. They say Armstrong has violated controlled substance laws and committed perjury, and they want to see him answer questions under oath in a court of law.

I'm pretty sure any action requiring a vote by commissioners is subject to the Open Meetings Act....and since there is no such record of a vote suspending the superintendant, it would stand to reason they were not the cause of it. Just sayin'

About Me

Jim Baca has a strong record of visionary service to New Mexico. He retired as the State of New Mexico's Natural Resource Trustee 1n 2010. He has served as Mayor of the City of Albuquerque, as well as two prior terms as New Mexico’s elected State Land Commissioner. He served as the Director of the National Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior in the first Clinton Administration. Jim Baca also serves on the Boards of numerous non profit organizations including The Wilderness Society and the Wyss Foundation and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Baca has run a successful public affairs consulting practice when not serving in public office. He spends his retirement playing golf, attending board meetings, and generally doing what ever he wants to do.